OUR TEAM

Nico Albert Williams (ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ Cherokee Nation) is the Founder and Executive Director of Burning Cedar Sovereign Wellness, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and urban Indigenous community wellness center whose mission is to address socioeconomic disparities, health crises, and cultural disconnection affecting the Tulsa Native community by re-establishing ancestral foodways and wellness practices, educating future generations of Indigenous cooks, supporting Indigenous food producers, teaching sustainable and environmentally restorative practices, and providing resources for Native people to improve their spiritual, mental, emotional and physical health through ancestral ways of knowing. She spends her time growing, foraging, cooking, eating, studying, writing, and speaking about Native cuisine. 

Nico is the recipient of the 2021 Greater Tulsa Indian Affairs Commission Dream Keeper's Award for Leadership in Business, the 2022 Cherokee Phoenix Seven Feathers Award for Culture, and she serves as a culinary diplomat for the US Department of State Arts Envoy program, representing North American Indigenous foodways in international spaces. Nico’s recipes have been featured in the Blue Zones American Kitchen cookbook, The Good Berry cookbook, a forthcoming book by The Sioux Chef Sean Sherman, and Smithsonian American Table. Her work has also been featured by Food Network, USA Today, Southern Living, Hulu, BBC, Cherokee Nation's OsiyoTV, Smithsonian Institute, King Arthur Baking Co, Atlas Obscura, PBS, and PRX among others. 

She shares a fireplace with her husband, Kyle Williams Sr (Ponca, Otoe-Missouria, Iowa) and family, who enjoy spending time together outdoors and dancing at powwows. She and Kyle also play music in the Indigenous sludge metal band Medicine Horse.

Pam Mdwèsnejewen Vrooman, Ph.D. is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of Oklahoma, currently in private practice since 2008. She specializes in the treatment of co-occurring disorders and trauma  for adolescents and adults, with an emphasis on decolonizing trauma work. She works with a number of neurodivergent individuals as well as individuals who identify as LGBTQ+. 

Prior to starting her own practice, she worked in the field of chemical dependency at all levels as well as interfacing with the judicial system by serving as Drug/Mental Health Court liaison for Resonance Center for Women. She also worked at Domestic Violence Intervention Services offering counseling and advocacy for victims of domestic violence.

Dr. Vrooman received her B.A. in English, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Tulsa. While in graduate school she also served as the research coordinator for a $5 million Office of Juvenile Affairs gang prevention grant working with multiple Tulsa non-profits. She was a speaker in the train the trainer series conducted by the Partnership for a Drug Free America, and also appeared in the Emmy-nominated documentary, “A Question of Life or Meth.” Prior to becoming a psychologist, Dr. Vrooman spent 20 years in public relations and marketing doing strategic planning, market research and writing. 

Dr. Vrooman sits on the Board of The Kwek Society, a non-profit focused on ending period poverty for Native students, and for Burning Cedar Sovereign Wellness Center, an indigenous-led community center focused on bringing knowledge of healthy traditional food ways and indigenous wellness practices to Native families. She is a member of Matriarch Oklahoma, an ongoing student of the Bodéwadmi language, and performs regularly with Déwé’gen Kwék, a Citizen Potawatomi women’s hand drum group. She is married to Samuel Harris, with two adult children, three grandchildren and three big dogs that regularly “help” dig up her gardens of plant medicines.

Okcate Evita Smith McCommas (Mvskoke) is deeply involved in the ongoing fight for a more equitable, holistic, and environmentally conscious future.

She has managed festivals and events with thousands of people in attendance, coordinated hundreds of volunteers and staff members, and participated in community groups that promote civic engagement, Indigenous agency, and cultural diversity. Both privately and through her digital media and event support company, Summerhead Creative, she and her husband work alongside organizations like Burning Cedar Sovereign Wellness, The Center for Indigenous Health Research and Policy at OSU, Oklahoma Sierra Club, OK Roots Music, The Brain Injury Recovery Foundation, Take Control Initiative, and Rainbowland Arts, helping to further the missions of progressive, compassionate, creative, and equitable causes.

Okcate grew up in the Ancestral Homelands of the Mvskoke on the southeast coast of Georgia. Her respect and appreciation for nature grew out of daily exposure to the power of the ocean and the delicate balance of the nearby marshland ecosystems. Though her family was impoverished, she was lucky to have access to the local community’s flourishing public arts and education programs. However, there were no other Native people to engage with outside of her immediate family. Tribal knowledge was passed down to her through her parents. Okcate moved to Tulsa during college, where she has worked hard to connect with her tribe and honor the intentional, community-focused sacred tribal ways of her ancestors through non-profit work and volunteering.

Okcate is a certified Red Cross Aquatic and Safety Trainer of nearly two decades, a caregiver for her parents, an event manager, and a lifelong, self-taught, multi-media artist. She uses art to address intergenerational trauma and reconnect with traditions that were taken from her Ancestors. Her art reflects a maximalist approach to color, celebrating her lived experiences through chroma, shape, texture, and evocative poetry.

Dr. Valarie Blue Bird Jernigan is a Choctaw woman and Professor of Medicine and Rural Health. She received her Doctorate in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular disease prevention at Stanford University, where she also completed a degree in documentary filmmaking. She is the Principal Investigator of more than a dozen research studies aimed at improving Indigenous food environments through policy and systems interventions. She also leads the Center for Indigenous Innovation and Health Equity, funded by the Office of Minority Health. Dr. Jernigan is a member of the Canadian Institutes of Health research College of Reviewers. She is the inaugural chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Intervention Research to Improve Native Health (IRINAH) initiative, a collaboration of NIH-funded investigators conducting intervention science research. In 2019 she established and now directs the Center for Indigenous Health Research and Policy (CIHRP), an endowed research Center of Oklahoma State University’s Center for Health Sciences. In all of her work she has focused on fostering long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with Indigenous communities that promote tribal sovereignty and build community capacity to improve health.

Coming Soon!

Crystal Brownstone, an enrolled citizen of the Muscogee Nation with familial ties to the Ponca and Citizen Potawatomi Nations, is a dedicated librarian and advocate for Indigenous representation in libraries and education. Crystal holds a Master of Library and Information Studies from the University of Oklahoma and a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Oklahoma State University. She currently serves as a Research and Instruction Librarian at Tulsa Community College, where she also advises the Native American Student Alliance, fostering a supportive and inclusive environment for Indigenous students.

Her professional journey includes nine years at the Tulsa City-County Library system, where she contributed to the development of Native American programming and collection curation. As the inaugural Chair of the Native Voices American Indian Affinity Group, she collaborated with colleagues to support Indigenous-focused initiatives. Crystal also worked closely with the American Indian Resource Center, serving on the Festival of Words Author Selection and Planning Committees. Throughout her career, Crystal has been committed to connecting community members with valuable resources, promoting information literacy, and offering expert readers’ advisory services. Her work reflects a deep passion for empowering diverse communities through accessible and inclusive library services.

“Initiating wellness in our communities has never been more crucial for our people. Eat like your life depends on it, because it does.” - Mary Jo Pratt 

Recognizing the impact food had on her own journey to a better quality of life, Mary Jo is energized and inspired to support, create, develop and deliver wellness to our communities.

Mary Jo currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer of Bacone College, a private non-profit institution of higher education that was originally founded in 1880 as The Indian University. 

The mission of higher education resonated with me because my personal constitution directly aligns with the mission to empower people to take ownership of their future through education. This means elevating human potential and creating a new pathway for our people to new beginnings. The ultimate goal of our efforts is to reduce gaps because we know education elevates the human condition and advances human potential.

Mary Jo brings over 10 years of progressive financial management experience and five years of techno-functional experience implementing/supporting business operations, applications, and software as well as financial experience across the nonprofit, private and tribal businesses. Having served in corporate accounting, finance and development, Mary Jo's experience also includes creating and maintaining multimillion dollar budgets.